Nubian couple; Venice, 19th century.

Nubian couple; Venice, XIX century.
Carved wood, glass eyes.
They present faults and losses in the polychrome.
Measurements: 176 x 84 x 40 cm.
Example of the survival of the Venetian taste for exotic representations within the historicist decorative arts of the 19th century. Carved in polychrome wood and endowed with glass eyes, these free-standing sculptures refer to an artistic tradition deeply linked to Baroque Venice, where the fascination for the Orient and for the figures of African descent reached a special relevance both in the domestic decoration and in the sumptuary furniture.
The genesis of this typology is to be found in the work of the sculptor and cabinetmaker Andrea Brustolon, an essential figure of Venetian Baroque, famous for integrating complex sculptural groups into luxury furniture. His representations of black servants and pages, ebonized and richly polychrome, acquired enormous diffusion throughout Europe, becoming a symbol of aristocratic refinement between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During the 19th century, historicism took up these models as a nostalgic evocation of the Venetian magnificence of the past, reinterpreting them under a romantic sensibility fascinated by the picturesque, the distant and the exotic.
The sculptures present a remarkable technical quality in both carving and polychromy. The faces, treated with dark and shiny surfaces, contrast with the chromatic richness of the clothes, decorated with golden motifs and vegetal scrolls that evoke sumptuous fabrics of oriental inspiration. The presence of glass eyes also intensifies the naturalistic and theatrical effect of the figures, conceived not only as ornamental elements, but also as authentic scenographic focal points within the interior space. Their clothing and attitude are reminiscent of the idealized gondoliers and servants of eighteenth-century Venice, transformed here into emblems of an elegant and cosmopolitan world lost in the wake of modern industrialization.
Beyond their obvious decorative function, these works reflect the complex relationship of nineteenth-century Europe with cultural otherness, often constructed from an idealized and fanciful vision of the Orient and Africa.